[toc]The temperatures in Las Vegas are record-highs, but cooler minds are prevailing what with all the action surrounding the new NHL team this week. The Vegas Golden Knights participated in the team’s first-ever NHL draft. Along with the draft, the team celebrated some other developments in their new home in Nevada.
Another entity is getting ready to call Nevada home too–marijuana. The recreational marijuana laws go into effect on July 1. Even though we are still a few days removed from changes, the co-existence of cannabis and Nevada casinos is already proving difficult.
As for difficult, putting on the biggest poker series in the world is always a challenge. Nonetheless, the World Series of Poker (WSOP) manages to pull it off. The series admittedly has a few problems though, and someone has some solutions for them.
Vegas Golden Knights partner with D Las Vegas
The games may play out at T-Mobile Arena, but the Vegas Golden Knights are officially calling The D their Fremont Street home. This week the two groups announced the partnership via press conference.
As part of the deal, players will frequently visit the Downtown Las Vegas casino. There will also be watch parties for every game and an annual fan fest on site.
Even though the start of the season is a few months away, excitement for the new team is already starting to build. During Friday’s draft, the team had three first-round picks. They used their first pick to take Cody Glass, a Canadian center. Glass and the other picks join goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who came to the team through the expansion draft.
The Golden Knights’ season begins on October 6 with a series of away games. The first home bout is on October 10 against the Arizona Coyotes.
Casinos take hard line on marijuana
The Silver State is making way for marijuana, but the same cannot be said for the casinos. When the recreational marijuana laws go into effect on July 1, there still will not be any smoking on casino properties. The laws do not allow for public consumption. Moreover, casinos plan to police anyone smoking marijuana in any of the properties’ hotel rooms.
This hard stance may be even tougher than some realized though. A recent story from the pro-marijuana publication Leafly claims Wynn Resorts banned Isaac Dietrich from Wynn properties. Dietrich is the CEO of Mass Roots, a marijuana networking company. He claims his status as the head of that company was the reason he was banned.
According to a supposed email from a Wynn employee, the Wynn was not comfortable taking Dietrich on as a customer because of stringent financial due diligence regulations aimed to prevent money laundering. Wynn would not corroborate the story.
Casinos and marijuana are about to co-exist, but based on the casino’s action, the relationship is going to be uneasy at best.
The WSOP suggestion box
It would not be the WSOP without people complaining on social media. As Nevada Online Casinos notes though, some of the complaints do have merit. With that in mind, they have a few suggestions for the world’s biggest poker series to consider before 2018 rolls around.
